http://odili.net/news/source/2009/mar/20/206.html

Looks like our dear beloved Obj is is at it again! 

Obasanjo: I’m ready to face more probes!
•Says it’s too soon to assess Yar’Adua
By Paul Ohia with agency report, 03.20.2009

Friday, March 20, 2009

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday defe-nded himself against allegations of corruption, saying he was ready for more probes.

He said he remains the only Nigerian leader who has been investigated by the anti-corruption agencies in the country and given a clean bill of health.

Obasanjo spoke as a guest on a British Broadcasting Corp-oration (BBC) programme, HARDtalk, anchored by Stephen Sackur.

He was alleged to have engaged in corruption, mismanagement and high-handedness during his eight-year rule between 1999 and 2007.

A committee of the House of Representatives which probed expenses in the power sector during his reign turned in a damning report on him over the management of the expenses.

Obasanjo who was visibly angry during the interview said if anybody had any allegation of corruption against him, it should be brought forward.

On the Halliburton scandal where some top Nigerians officials during his reign allegedly received bribes from the American company, Obasanjo asked if his name was mentioned in the scam.

Though he admitted that he could not say some of his government  functionaries were not corrupt, the former president said his administration set up anti-graft agencies to fight the menace of corruption for which it received kudos from the Metropolitan Police.

But he spoke of former Vice-President Atiku Abu-bakar whom he said had some issues over the US Congressman William Jefferson case, though he said he was not sure if some guilt had been established against Atiku.

Obasanjo said during his tenure, two anti-corruption bodies were set up, two ministers were removed and one even died in the process.

When the BBC interviewer reminded him that he had allegedly been indicted by various committees of the National Assembly, the former president took umbrage at the remarks warning Sackur that he was accusing him of corruption.

“What you are doing now is that you are accusing me of corruption. And no one has accused me of corruption and I‘m not going to take that from you. Why are you accusing me of corruption? Do you have evidence to back your claims up? Let anybody with corruption allegations against my name come out to present it,” he said.

He said his regime created two anti-corruption bodies to tackle the hydra-headed problem of corruption in Nigeria and that the efforts of the anti-graft agencies were even applauded by the Scotland Yard.

When asked to assess the performance of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua whom he handed over to, the former president said it was too early for him to do that.

He, however, said he believes Yar'Adua is a good man but that he feels that the President knows that it takes more than being a good man to be an effective, successful and great President.

On his daughter, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello’s involvement in the alleged N300 million scam at the Federal Ministry of Health, Obasanjo said at 42, his daughter was old enough to defend herself on the allegation.

In another interview with Al Jazeera English, Obasanjo said the situation in the Niger Delta where militants are on the prowl was not a civil war thing but a criminal situation.

Responding to a question by Sir David Frost that with the violence going on in the Niger Delta, civil war was imminent, Obasanjo said: “No I wouldn’t say civil war because the situation in the Niger Delta is not a situation… it’s not really a political situation like Northern Ireland for instance.

“No, it’s a criminal situation, people have got used to an easy way of making money by…what for… if you are financing by stealing crude oil or refined product they call it bunkering and then when they are prevented from doing that, they go into taking hostages and it’s more of a criminal situation, which of course started with a bit of agitation, agitation of well we want more of the product from the god-given oil in our territory…”

The interview will be broadcast on Frost Over The World on Al Jazeera English today at 19 hours gmt.

Answering another question on the situation in Eastern Congo, Obasanjo said he shared the optimism of Rwandan President Paul Kagame who was quoted as saying he had never been hopeful on the future of Congo.

Obasanjo was recently appointed Special Envoy by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo.

The former president said: “Well David, if that came from President Kagame, I will have no choice but to be delighted and to accept it gladly because on the 7th November when the Great Lake leaders gathered in Nairobi with the Secretary General of the United Nations, the Chairman of AU and the Chairman of the AU Commission, President Kagame and President Kabila will not even talk to themselves, let alone shake hands and if today the situation has changed to the extent that not only are they talking to themselves and they will shake hands, they will hug themselves, that they are planning and executing a joint operation together, then there is great hope for peace in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and along the borders of Congo/Burundi, Congo/Rwanda and Congo/Uganda.  So I agree entirely with him.”